A conclusion might be close in a legal battle over a real estate deal that led to a former Indiana Democratic Party chairman and three others going to prison. According to paperwork filed Monday in federal court, the Northwest Indiana District Council of Carpenters Union is poised to settle all of the civil litigation surrounding its 1999 purchase of 55 acres of undeveloped land near Chesterton in northwest Indiana for $10 million in 1999. Appraisers since have determined the land was worth about half that price. Imprisoned real estate salesman Kevin Pastrick, who admitted bribing a union pension board official to get support for the sale, has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle the union's lawsuit against him, the paperwork said.
See "Union close to settling lawsuit over Coffee Creek scandal", Associated Press, Chicago Tribune, May 14, 2007